J.T. Miller To Lead Rangers As Next Team Captain

After the New York Rangers traded then team captain Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks in the middle of last season, they went the rest of the way without one.

With that said, it appeared that Vincent Trocheck had picked up the mantle left by Trouba. He spoke with reporters as if he was the team leader, he was open and honest, and he worked hard every single game to lead by example.

Well, today (September 16), the Blueshirts announced that they have named J.T. Miller as their 29th captain in franchise history. It is not exactly a surprise as Miller, 32, was an alternate captain of the Vancouver Canucks for over three seasons.

In a statement on the naming of Miller as captain, Rangers president and general manager, Chris Drury, said that Miller provided leadership to the Blueshirts as soon as he arrived from the Canucks last season.

“Since his arrival last season, J.T. immediately became a leader for our group and exemplifies how we want to conduct ourselves both on and off the ice. Congratulations to J.T. and his entire family on an incredibly meaningful achievement and we’re confident he will continue to represent our organization with class, commitment, and integrity.”

Miller, who was the Rangers took with the 15th overall pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, played with the team from the 2012-13 season until he got traded during the 2017-18 season and then came back to the team last season when he got traded by the Canucks. As such, he has a lot of experience being a Ranger and knows what wearing the capital “C” on the front of the jersey means.

He is also a player that can lead this team offensively. He had 35 points (13 goals and 22 assists) in 32 games with the team after being acquired from the Canucks and had a lot of success playing with Mika Zibanejad.

Miller is also someone who can play a physical brand of hockey, stick up for his teammates, and be someone who holds both others and himself accountable if things are not going well. Yes, he certainly had his share of problems with Elias Pettersson, but he has put it behind him and told reporters last March that it was blown out of proportion.

“The whole me-and-Petey thing, it’s still blown out of proportion,” Miller said via Sportsnet’s Iain Maclntyre. “I get what Jim was doing. I have a ton of respect for Jim (Rutherford), and I talked with Jim after that (story). I wasn’t mad; I understand everybody has a job to do.

“Clearly, if me and Petey were better than we were, obviously this might be different. But it’s also not as bad as everybody thought, either. It’s just an easy thing for everybody to run with. There was just a lot of moving parts.”

While I believe that Miller is more than a solid choice, I thought that the team would go with Trocheck as their next captain. He has done everything and more for the franchise both on and off the ice since becoming a Blueshirt prior to the 2022-23 season.

Luckily for the Rangers, Trocheck and Miller are close friends. As such, they will more than likely work together to steer this team in the right direction as they look to return to the Stanley Cup playoffs this upcoming season.